


Grace

by CupidStrikes



Category: Uta no Prince-sama
Genre: M/M, Post-Anime, Post-Game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-11
Updated: 2013-06-11
Packaged: 2017-12-14 14:44:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/838071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CupidStrikes/pseuds/CupidStrikes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Otoya hopes Tokiya's voice will always falter over that line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grace

Tokiya is thirty when they retire from idol business. STARISH have had a good run. Longer than they had anticipated, but short enough to be able to go out on a positive and leave a fruitful career behind them for the biographies. He and Otoya buy a house on the outskirts of the city and let the press say what they like the first time they hold hands in public. It hadn't been easy, hiding this for a decade, but they had pulled through. In due time the others will come out too, and eventually the shock and rumours will fade into obscurity as the next generation of idols debut. Tokiya took a job at HAYATO's former agency and works alongside his former manager helping new idols find their feet. Making sure they aren't trapped into a miserable cycle of disappointment and sacrifices for scrapes of fame like he had been. The hours aren't great, and Otoya complains about going to bed alone but he's always forgiven by morning because he came home at all.

Otoya volunteers at his former orphanage. The woman who runs it insists Tokiya calls her “mum” and sends Otoya home with more homemade jams and cakes than either of them can hope to get through in the next year. Otoya teaches guitar there, and at several schools in the area, and manages to drag Tokiya along to give vocal lessons once in a while, too. Tokiya insists it's too tiring. That he's too old for this now but Otoya knows he's lying. Knows he always re-uses that one song not because the lyrics are steeped enough in popular culture that most of the children know them, but because it reminds him, reminds them both, of how deeply music is a part of them, has always been a part of them. Otoya never tells Tokiya he knows he's not allergic to the flowers that grow in front of the orphanage. That he knows how his partner looks when he's overcome with an emotion he doesn't know how to deal with. That he hopes Tokiya's voice will always falter over that line _that saved a wretch like me,_ that his eyes will always find him in the room so that Otoya knows it's all for him. Tokiya doesn't work on those nights and Otoya doesn't mind the bruises he'll have in the morning from how tightly Tokiya holds him.

The rest of STARISH live nearby, close enough that there are more impromptu sleepovers and parties than men of their age should really be having. They're never loud enough that the neighbours complain, and they each have spare keys to each of their respective houses, know where the mugs and cups are, and replace the milk. It works. Haruka comes over on weekends and marks her students' assignments, tells them about Shining's latest antics, which pair she thinks will debut, which two students should pair up. She still writes for them, of course. Makes time for it, and standing around the grand piano in her living room feels the same as it has always done. Feels right. Tokiya had worried she would feel left out, now that six of the seven members of STARISH had all settled down but there was no falseness in the way she accepted each of them exactly the way they were. He had a feeling she had known before even they did. Once he had entertained the idea of marrying her himself but now it seemed silly; she had become too important to him, too important to each of them, that to go further would be violating the bounds of the family they had built.

They usually get Saturdays to themselves. On this particular one Ren and Masato are away on a business trip. Natsuki is with Syo whilst the latter is filming on location somewhere in Europe. Haruka is attending a dance at the academy. They're guaranteed no interruptions. Otoya usually cooks, but when he comes home from picking up the newspaper and a loaf of bread Tokiya already has his violet apron on and is slicing carrots as he half-murmurs part of a song to himself. Lingering in the doorway, Otoya takes his time to silently remove his shoes and coat, his eyes never leaving his partner for long. He knows all of Tokiya's habits by now but there's something in the way he moves when he thinks he's alone that makes a part of Otoya ache. Logically, there's little special in the way Tokiya leans one hip to the counter and puts the knife down to reach for the glass of orange juice by the sink, or the way something outside catches his attention. This is the only time Otoya cannot tell what Tokiya is thinking, and he can't bring himself to let the moment end so it's only when Tokiya finally looks away from the window and notices him stood there that he steps into the kitchen. Tokiya doesn't ask how long he's been there. He doesn't need to. He turns back to the carrots but doesn't pick up the knife as he knows Otoya and he's leaning back before Otoya even wraps his arms around him. Lips against his neck, jaw, cheek, and Tokiya turns his head to catch the fourth kiss. Otoya laughs into it and his arms tighten around Tokiya's waist. Tokiya reaches for the knife and only makes a token protest when Otoya steals a piece of carrot and retreats, cackling, into the living room. He shakes his head and hears the muted notes of unfretted guitar strings being disturbed and knows Otoya is wrestling with the zip on his guitar case again before settling onto their sofa with the acoustic in his lap. Tokiya knows the scene well enough that he could likely time it. Otoya will run his hand up the neck of the guitar and strum a few chords to make sure each string is in tune. He hears each one over the slide of Otoya's hands over the strings. G major. E minor. D major. Usually Otoya doesn't play anything in particular. Snatches of something he heard on the radio, the notes warped by memory, or parts of their songs, random chords or scales. Tokiya lets the knife slip from his fingers again and closes his eyes. The first few chords Otoya plays are familiar in a way that makes his lungs forget how to expand because he's never heard how they sound on a guitar, and he finds himself abandoning dinner and walking into the other room.

Otoya looks up from his position leant over the guitar and smiles at Tokiya

“I think you know this one.” He winks and holds Tokiya's gaze as his fingers find the chords again. Tokiya feels the words come like tears. He kisses Otoya through the lyrics and his chest hurts with the effort of breathing because Otoya knows what this song means to him and it sounds like a promise in his mouth. Otoya turns his head slightly to break the kiss, and Tokiya hadn't realised he had closed his eyes until he's surprised to see the damp trails on Otoya's cheeks that match the way his voice doesn't quite hit the higher notes and chokes over the long ones. He laughs and rests his forehead against Otoya's as his voice joins and they struggle through the song together. The last chord is muted as Otoya's hands leave the guitar to clasp Tokiya's and Tokiya knows he's a mess and he's crying over a song, but it sounds so perfect in his lover's mouth and Tokiya knows without doubt that for every day in the past he spent unhappy there is a day in his future that will be bright and everything he ever wanted because of the man beside him. Because Tokiya was saved by a song and he can hear in every note and chord and word that Otoya knows and he understands and because it's Otoya it's okay. It's okay.

_Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,_   
_that saved a wretch like me._   
_I once was lost but now am found,_   
_was blind, but now I see._

**Author's Note:**

> Not going to lie - I cried whilst writing this. The idea came when answering a pairing meme over on Tumblr and it kind of snowballed from that. Tokiya singing Amazing Grace to Otoya was supposed to just be a reference to that episode but then it just made such beautiful sense.
> 
> I never expected this series to give me so many FEELINGS.


End file.
